Actors in All-Latino Cast Savor a 'Historic Moment'

By MIREYA NAVARRO

Published: December 2, 2003

When Victor Argo began his acting career in the 1950's, he found that to get work he had to drop Jiménez, his real surname. Priscilla Lopez stuck to her name a decade later and found it easier to land jobs, achieving early success as Diana Morales in ''A Chorus Line.''

And a generation later Jimmy Smits could hone his marquee status playing Latinos in the television hits ''L.A. Law'' and ''N.Y.P.D. Blue'' while David Zayas could abandon a career as a New York City police officer to chase a childhood dream in the theater district he once patrolled.

These actors, part of the ensemble cast of ''Anna in the Tropics'' at the Royale Theater, have taken starkly different paths to Broadway. But their coming together in the first Pulitzer Prize-winning drama written by a Latino is laden with symbolism for them.

''Anna'' is the Broadway debut for Nilo Cruz, a Cuban-American playwright, and for most of the seven actors, who also include Vanessa Aspillaga, John Ortiz and Daphne Rubin-Vega. (For Ms. Rubin-Vega, the original Mimi in ''Rent,'' and Ms. Lopez, a veteran of nearly a dozen Broadway productions, this is a return to Broadway.)

At a recent news conference for Hispanic reporters, all seven actors seemed to share the same emotional connection to the play. Ms. Lopez was overcome by tears as she and the others spoke about their pride in being part of what Mr. Smits called ''a historic moment.''

''You know what could happen with this play in terms of opening doors,'' Mr. Smits said. ''Like Nilo, we have a lot of talented artists waiting for their moment.''

''Anna,'' which opened last month to mixed reviews, is a rarity: it is a Latino-themed show on Broadway, and a drama at that.

A study released last month by the League of American Theaters and Producers showed that Broadway audiences are overwhelmingly non-Hispanic white (83 percent) and that in the 2002-3 season Latinos accounted for only 4 percent of ticket buyers. The marketing team behind ''Anna in the Tropics'' has been trying to draw more Latinos to the show, advertising in Spanish-language newspapers, handing out fliers at Latin clubs and contacting upscale Latino groups like bar and medical associations, said Charles Rice-Gonzalez, a publicist for the play.

Regardless of how it does at the box office, ''Anna'' has already cemented its special significance to a cast that embodies the changing landscape for Latinos in theater, television and film. Their contrasting experiences are exemplified by Mr. Argo, Ms. Lopez, Mr. Smits and Mr. Zayas, all New York natives of Puerto Rican descent who were caught up in the Latin explosion -- in population numbers, recognition and cultural influence -- at different stages of their careers.

At 69, Mr. Argo is the oldest of the group and dates his earliest acting days to when, he said, ''even the criminals were white.''

''There was absolutely no work for Latinos and blacks,'' he said in an interview.

The time was the late 1950's and Mr. Argo, then known as Victor Jiménez, had to make ends meet by selling jewelry, working as a printer and driving a cab. To make matters worse, the comedian Bill Dana had appropriated the name José Jiménez to portray a Hispanic character who spoke exaggerated broken English.

''I felt the prejudice was against the name, not even against me,'' he said. ''They couldn't conceive that someone with an obvious Latino name could play anything. The only actor working was José Ferrer, and I don't think people knew he was Puerto Rican.''

Mr. Argo adopted his stage name in the mid-60's, picking Argo because it was of unclear stock. He said he soon was swamped with parts for Russians, Jews and other characters. For most of his career, he said, he has played non-Hispanic parts.

But not fitting the Latin stereotype cut both ways. In the 1970's, Mr. Argo said, he was sent away from an audition because he didn't look enough like a Puerto Rican to the people in charge of casting for an ''All in the Family'' episode. They relented, he said, after ''I put on a bright yellow shirt and a fake mustache.''

Today, Mr. Argo said, he finds work playing more realistic Latinos like Santiago, the Cuban patriarch in ''Anna.'' ''It's obvious that things have changed dramatically for Latino actors,'' he said.

Ms. Lopez, who is 55 and who became a Broadway dancer and actress in the 1960's, said she had kept her name against the advice of many because doing otherwise would have felt like a family betrayal. The theater still offered her a wide range of roles, and in 1980 she won a Tony Award for her performance as Harpo Marx in ''A Day in Hollywood/A Night in the Ukraine.''

But Ms. Lopez said she encountered typecasting when she tried to break into television and film and was constantly asked to fake a Spanish accent to be more convincingly Hispanic. Latino actors still complain about that as a common expectation. ''I can do an accent, but I won't do an accent,'' she said she told a television producer one day after one accent request too many. ''I'm a reality. This is what I speak like.''

She said that she got the part with one string attached: ''Just make sure you bring that Latin temper with you,'' the producer told her.